HOW TO CURSE IN HIEROGLYPHICS

How to Curse in Hieroglyphics marks Lesley Livingston's middle grade debut, with cowriter Jonathan Llyr.

Meet Cheryl and Tweed, two 12yearold girls who are identical twins (just not with each other!), cousins, and best pals. After a mysterious “incident” involving a plane trip when they were very young left both girls orphaned and twinless, they are raised by their grandfather, the owner/operator of the tumbledown Starlight Paradise DriveIn movie theatre in the middleofnowhere town of Wiggins Cross. The girls have bonded closer than sisters through a shared love of “B” movies and buttered popcorn, and they firmly believe that there must be something more out there in the world than meets the eye. Something...weird. They're about to find out just how right they are. When Dudley's World O'Wonders, a threadbare traveling carnival, rolls into town, the citizens of Wiggins welcome the distraction. But even the carnival's shady owner doesn't realize that among the fake and fabricated “wonders” of his traveling shamshow rests the authentic mummified remains of a young Egyptian princess...bearing a shockingly real curse! It's up to Cheryl and Tweed, with their encyclopedic knowledge of monstermovie lore, and their flyboy friend Yeager “Pilot” Armbruster to save the town—and themselves! Lesley Livingston is the acclaimed author of the Wondrous Strange series (HarperTeen), which includes Wondrous Strange (2009), Darklight (2010), and Tempestuous (2011.) Penguin Canada published Livingston's second threebook series, which includes Once Every Never (2011), Every Never After (2013), and For Now and For Never (2014). A spinoff to the Wondrous Strange series, Starling, was released by HarperTeen in 2012 and includes Descendant (2013) and Transcendent (forthcoming December 2014). Livingston's middle grade series with Jonahtan Llyr, The Wiggins Weird, published from Penguin Canada in 2013. It includes How to Curse in Hieroglyphics and The Haunting of Heck House (forthcoming October 2014). Livingston currently lives in Toronto, Canada.